Does FSA cover contact lenses?
Prescription contact lenses — and the saline, cleaning, and storage solutions that go with them — are qualified FSA expenses because they correct vision.
What flips the answer
- Covered when
The contacts are prescription lenses that correct your vision — this is the ordinary case and includes the daily, biweekly, and monthly types.
- Covered when
You're buying contact-lens supplies — saline, cleaning, or enzyme solution used with prescription lenses.
- Not covered when
The lenses are plano (non-corrective) costume or color contacts bought purely for appearance.
IRS Publication 502 counts amounts paid for contact lenses needed for medical reasons as a qualified medical expense. Because prescription contacts correct vision, they qualify, and you can pay for them with FSA funds even after your vision insurance pays its share.
The supplies that keep prescription lenses usable also qualify. Pub 502 specifically allows the cost of equipment and materials for using contact lenses — saline solution, cleaner, and enzyme cleaner all count.
The lens has to have a corrective purpose. Plano (zero-power) costume or purely cosmetic-color contacts have no vision-correction function, so they fall outside the qualified-expense definition even though they sit on the same shelf.
That's the general answer. Yours is written in your actual policy.
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